Tag Archives: Them

Beat ’66 Show #4 – The Blurb
29
Jan

While you’re listening, the following blurb may be of interest.

Play Loud.

SAM THE SHAM & THE PHAROAHS “Red Hot”

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs were unusual in several ways. To questions regarding the origins of the term “sham,” Samudio answered that it was “rhythm-and-blues jargon for shuffling, twisting or jiving around to music.” Before taking up the organ, Samudio “shammed” while he sang, so he found the term a fitting one for the band’s name. Also, being a novice on organ, he had to “sham” his way through playing. In addition, he and his fellow musicians were known for wearing Middle Eastern attire for their performances. Indeed, Samudio wore a “jewelled jacket and feathered turban.” He purchased a hearse that he called “Black Beauty” in which to haul his organ and his Leslie speaker, and the band toured in it from then on.

The song was originally performed by Billy Lee Riley and made an impression on the young Bob Dylan. At the Musicares Person Of The Year 2015 Dylan said:

“Billy Lee Riley became what is known in the industry, a condescending term by the way, as a one hit wonder. But sometimes, just sometimes, once in a while, a one hit wonder can make a more powerful impact than a recording star who’s got 20 or 30 hits behind him. And Billy’s hit song was called “Red Hot,” and it was red hot. It could blast you out of your skull and make you feel happy about it. Change your life.”

Technically Riley did have another hit in Flying Saucer Rock ‘N’ Roll but “Red Hot” is a killer song.

Recorded at Sun Records where Billy Lee Riley was competing for attention with the likes of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash. This stands up just fine against all those great artists:

ELVIS PRESLEY “Blue River”

Recorded in 1963 it was inexplicably shelved for a couple of years until it was released as a single in the UK in January 1966, reaching number 22, not bad considering that by then Elvis’s country rock sound was beginning to sound a bit old fashioned.

I love the home-made Youtube video that this guy has done for this song on Youtube, a real labour of love. Elvistheking35, Beat City salutes you!

THE ISLEY BROTHERS “This Old Heart Of Mine”

Funny how perceptions are different. I was totally under the impression that this song is among Motown’s most well-known, but for all its finger-clicking goodness a quick straw poll indicates that I’m in a minority.

For me this is the quintessential Motown track of this era. No intro beyond that trademark drum roll, then its straight into a groove that lasts for the rest of the track.

The song has been covered a few times but this is the best one I’ve found. Recorded in 1975 but only released in 2014, this is by the underrated Bettye Swann, who slows it right down and turns it into something else entirely.

MARTHA REEVES & THE VANDELLAS “Never Leave Your Baby’s Side”

If the Supremes had cut a song called “Never Leave Your Baby’s Side” then you’d just KNOW without hearing it that it was going to be a gooey loved-up number sung by a submissive-sounding Diana Ross.

The title is given a 180 degree twist here though. You can’t imagine any other female Motown singer delivering this performance. Martha Reeves takes a waspish “don’t mess with me boy” tone on the verses but there’s enough sugar and sweetness in the chorus for the casual listener to think its just a nice song about always being with your bay-bee. But the delivery of the line “watch out” is the giveaway.

Its the tale of a woman who doesn’t trust here man but she doesn’t sit around moping at home, she knows the score, that all men are the same in this respect, waiting to play around as soon as you turn your back. Not a song that could be covered in the present day without scornful – and lets face it accurate – accusations of an acceptance of How Men Are, but at the time this was as powerful a statement as a woman could make.

This song was the B-side to “My Baby Loves Me”, which actually WOULD sound more natural in the hands of the Supremes. It’s still good, don’t get me wrong, but I’d put a fiver on “Never Leave
Your Baby’s Side” having originally been scheduled as the A-side until they bottled out.

THE WHEELS “Bad Little Woman”

The Wheels (renamed The Wheel-A-Ways for the US release of this record, presumably to avoid confusion with Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels) came out of the same Belfast scene as Van Morrison’s Them – indeed, Morrison played saxophone in an early incarnation of The Wheels.

See the superb Garage Hangover for details on The Wheels and many other sixties garage rock bands.

THEM “My Lonely Sad Eyes”

The band may have been on the verge of collapse but that song indicates that they could still make a great record in early 1966. From the album Them Again that was My Lonely Sad Eyes, a pointer of what was to come from Van Morrison in his solo career.

LITTLE MILTON “We Got The Winning Hand”

This sneaked into the Billboard Hot 100 AT number 100 for one solitary week in early 1966. Little Milton with We Got The Winning Hand, backed with “Sometimey”:

MILLIE SMALL & JIMMY CLIFF “Hey Boy Hey Girl”

Millie Small is best known for The Hit (“My Boy Lollipop”) but she made some great records through the rest of the sixties and into the seventies. This track was made to give a boost to a young Jimmy Cliff, just starting out at the time.

http://www.popsike.com/RARE-Millie-Small-Ska-At-the-Jamaica-Playboy-Club-LP/4010036663.html

THE EYES “My Degeneration”

The B-side to the second single by mod hopefuls The Eyes is both funny and knowing.

The song contained references to “a cup of coffee or two” which in the vernacular of the time meant .. well, we all know what “coming back for a coffee” means don’t we? I believe the modern equivalent is “Netflix and Chill”.

The humourless souls at the Tea Board attempted to sue the band because they seemed to be taking liberties with the “Join the tea set” chorus. Britain, eh?

CRISPIAN ST PETERS “You Were On My Mind”

Crispian St Peters could well have gone down in music history as a one-hit wonder but an interview with the New Musical Express in which he claimed that he’d written 80 songs that were better than anything the Beatles had ever produced, and that he was a better singer than Tom Jones and Elvis Presley (claiming that his own stage moves made Elvis look like the Statue Of Liberty).

This controversy – unusual for a singer who only had the one hit to his name – helped propel the proto-flower-power anthem “I’m The Pied Piper” into the charts.

So he went down in music history as the first (and possibly the only) TWO-hit wonder.

THE CYCLONES & THE CHECKMATES “The Dew”

The Singapore pop scene was thriving in late 1965 and early 1966 with bands like Naomi & The Boys and The Crescendos becoming big stars in their home country with their version of beat music.

The Cyclones were a duo comprising James and Siva Choy and they’re backed by instrumental surf / beat group the Checkmates on this record. There’s more bending of the notes than you’d expect from Western proponents of the form, giving it a definite sound of its own.

NEAL HEFTI – “Batman Theme”

The classic theme from the Batman TV show which debuted in January 1966, covered many many times by the likes of Link Wray, The Ventures and The Jam but to be honest none of those versions are as good as Neal Hefti’s original.

This is one of Hefti’s previous film themes. from the Jean Harlow biopic “Harlow” that came out in 1965, an instrumental version of “Girl Talk” which works better without the lyrics to my mind.

SPENCER DAVIS GROUP “Keep On Running”

Written by Jamaican singer and songwriter Jackie Edwards, “Keep On Running” could have been designed with Stevie Winwood’s soaring voice in mind and provided the Spencer Davis Group with their biggest and most enduring hit.

This is Jackie Edwards’ original version.

LEE HAZLEWOOD “I Move Around”

Signed to MGM Records after writing hits for the likes of Duane Eddy and (most recently and effectively) Nancy Sinatra’s breakthrough single “These Boots Are Made For Walking”, Lee Hazlewood’s career as a solo artist had stuttered somewhat up to this point.

His first single for the label is classic Hazlewood, a slow, dreamlike country tune with heartbreaking lyrics sung with his trademark flat, world-weary delivery.
He also recorded his own strange version of “These Boots Are Made For Walking” complete with running commentary – note the comment at 2:09 or thereabouts in particular.

THE BEAU BRUMMELS “Sad Little Girl”

A tune too good to tuck away on a B-side – the allegedly more commercial A-side was a cover of The Loving Spoonful’s “Good Time Music”, but that only just scraped into the Hot 100.

If only they’d pushed “Sad Little Girl” instead, who knows what could have happened?

THE FOUR TOPS “Shake Me, Wake Me When It’s Over”

Motown were early adopters of recycling.

Following standard label practice, this single by the Four Tops was covered by the Supremes later in 1966, on the album The Supremes A Go-Go.

MARVIN GAYE “One More Heartache”

Marvin Gaye with what comes over as a gritty remake of Can I Get A Witness with its sparse cool opening and relentless groove that just builds and builds.

Much like the earlier “Can I Get A Witness” in its sparse, cool opening which then drops into a groove which just keeps on building.

The B-side “When I Had Your Love” is another hidden gem

THE KINKS “Never Met A Girl Like You Before”

“One of our aims is to stay amateurs. As soon as we become professionals we’ll be ruined” – Ray Davies from the sleeve notes to the expanded rerelease of the album “The Kink Kontroversy”

THE SEEKERS “The Carnival Is Over”

A lovely, sad end-of-a-love-affair song that can be taken literally or figuratively, either way its heartbreaking.

The Seekers are underrated by most music historians.

Judith Durham’s voice could make the phone book sound poignant, especially when set against the strong unison male backing vocals. This is their cover of a Paul Simon song, “Come The Day”.

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Beat ’66 Show #3 – The Blurb
23
Jan

Hello and welcome to Beat Sixty-Six, in which we play some of the sounds that were around back in the sanctified pop music year of 1966.

This show includes soul sounds from Fontella Bass and James Brown, R and B from Them, the Pretty Things, Chris Farlowe and the Spencer Davis Group, a film theme from Eliot Fisher,
Motown is represented by the Supremes and the Four Tops, garage sounds from the Groupies, reggae from Prince Buster, the last gasp of non-Beatles Mersey sounds appropriately enough from the Merseybeats, tracks from the Kinks and the Rolling Stones, French singer-songwriter Michel Polnareff, and Nigerian high-life superstar Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson

THE SORROWS “Take A Heart”

One of the most overlooked bands of the British Invasion, the Sorrows offered a tough brand of R&B-infused rock that recalled the Pretty Things (though not as R&B-oriented) and the Kinks (though not as pop-oriented).

Their biggest British hit, “Take a Heart,” stopped just outside the U.K. Top 20; several other fine mid-’60s singles met with either slim or a total lack of success.

With the rich, gritty vocals of Don Fardon, taut raunchy guitars, and good material (both self-penned and from outside writers), they rank as one of the better British bands of their era, and certainly among the very best never to achieve success of any kind in the U.S.

Don Fardon had a solo Top 20 hit with “Indian Reservation” in 1968

THE KINKS “Where Have All The Good Times Gone”

From late 1965 Kinks’ mainman Ray Davies’ dissatisfaction and frustations – in the wake of a nervous breakdown earlier in the year – had begun to surface in the Kinks’ records – Where Have All The Good Times Gone appeared on the B-side of the happier number “Till The End Of The Day”. This was a pattern the band would repeat throughout 1966.

THE SUPREMES “My World Is Empty Without You”

Their run of number one US hits had to come to an end somewhere but it seems a shame that it had to be with this gorgeous, poignant song of loss and woe. Diana Ross’s plaintive, vulnerable voice is perfect for this song.

The Afghan Whigs covered this magnificently in 1994, the guitar intro reminiscent of the Stones’ “Paint It,Black”

PRINCE BUSTER “Too Hot”

Too Hot by Prince Buster neither celebrating nor criticising the rude boys, just commenting.

The song was covered by The Specials on their first album

JAMES BROWN “I Got You (I Feel Good)”

James Brown’s big crossover breakthrough into the pop charts came with “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” followed by “I Got You(I Feel Good)” in late 1965 and it was still there come January 1966.
The B-side is this great slow burner, “I Can’t Help It (I Just Do-Do-Do)”

ELLIOTT FISHER “Theme from ‘Our Man Flint'”

Espionage was were big in the mid-sixties with James Bond and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. so inevitably there were parodies. One of the best was Our Man Flint starring James Coburn as special agent Derek Flint – and the instrumental theme tune by Elliot Fisher was arguably as good as any Bond theme. The trailer gives you some idea of where the film was coming from – check out the clearly-not-German “Dr Schneider”, always raises a smile.

ROLLING STONES “Get Off Of My Cloud”

Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s influence on the band is not always appreciated – it was he who persuaded Mick Jagger and Keith Richard to write songs in the first place, even locking them in a room on more than one occasion until they came up with a hit.

After I Cant Get No Satisfaction had become their biggest and most acclaimed record so far, they could have been forgiven for resting on their laurels but according to Keef that was never an option with Oldham, who cajoled them into writing what is arguably an even better record than Satisfaction.

According to Philip Norman’s Stones biography “Shout” :
“The follow up to (Satisfaction) was an upbeat dance record with chords cribbed unashamedly from Twist And Shout and a lyric – bawled purposefully by Jagger in double time – which must represent the earliest attempt to infiltrate the British Top Ten with marijuana smoke”

The B-side is a decent enough number called “The Singer Not The Song”, slightly marred by Richard’s 12-string guitar which is out of tune throughout. Without wishing to ignite once more the whole Stones / Beatles debate, there is no way Paul McCartney would have allowed that on a Beatles record.

PRETTY THINGS “Midnight To Six Man”

The Pretty Things with Midnight To Six Man, great song, great title, the band’s tough R&B sound only enhanced by the piano of Nicky Hopkins (who similarly graced records by The Who) and the organ of Margo Lewis of Goldie & The Gingerbreads – but it still barely skimmed the Top 50.

Arkansas’ “The Culls” did a more laid back version a year later, which is still pretty good.

FONTELLA BASS “Recovery”

Fontella Bass started out as a piano accompanist.

Her singing career began in 1961 when, as piano player with Little Milton’s band, she was asked to fill in for Milton at short notice.

“Recovery” was her follow-up to the hit for which she is best remembered, “Rescue Me” – this was the rarely-heard B-Side of that record, “The Soul Of A Man” which if anything showcases her vocal talents better than either of the aforementioned tunes.

SPENCER DAVIS GROUP “Let Me Down Easy”

Some lovely restrained electric piano and guitar work on this track.

Paolo Nutini has covered this recently – I can’t say I’m his biggest fan but he has a decent stab at it imho.

THE GROUPIES “Primitive”

Is it possible to make a slow garage record that still sounds exciting?

The main riff is a note-for-note copy of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightnin'” and props to them for NOT speeding it up. It works for me but others remain unconvinced.

The Cramps covered this years later.

FOUR TOPS “Just As Long As You Need Me”

A track from “The Four Tops second album” possibly named by the same person who named the Spencer Davis Group’s second album. I guess the record industry didn’t trust the public to recognise albums by name.

This was take to extremes by Chicago (whose albums I believe have always had numbers on them rather than titles, like a magazine) and of course Peter Gabriels’ first three albums were just called Peter Gabriel. Unimaginative bunch.

This is “I Like Everything About You”, another track from the album, its a little gem.

THE MERSEYBEATS “I Stand Accused”

By late 1965 The Merseybeats were ready to call it a day as most of their British Beat Boom compatriots had done, as the scene sputtered out, condemned by Motown, folk-rock and the British R&B boom to go the same way as surfing music.

The Merseybeats had one last great single in their locker though, a soulful cover of I Stand Accused (written by Jerry Butler, the original singer with The Impressions)

Isaac Hayes did an incredible eleven-minute version of this – described by the Youtube listeners as the perfect song to make love to.

Although you wouldn’t necessarily want to make sexy time with your special one to Elvis Costello’s version (2:21).

MICHEL POLNAREFF “La Poupee Qui Fait Non”

The first hit for French singer songwriter Michel Polnareff who recorded versions in German, Italian and Spanish – bet he regrets not recording an English language version cos I reckon that could have been huge in the USA and Britain, offering something slightly different …

The song was recorded in London so that he could use the best session musicians around, which in mid-sixties London meant Jimmy Page on guitar. John-Paul Jones also plays bass on this which means it could well be the first instance of future members of Led Zeppelin playing on the same record.

Michel Polnareff has completed his first album in sixteen years which will be released over the next few months, definitely worth a listen and if its any good you’ll doubtless hear tracks from it on the Beat City podcast (which does the same thing as Retro Beat ’66, only for the music of 2016)

St Etienne did a towering version of this in the nineties:

CHRIS FARLOWE “Think”

First chart placing for North Londoner Chris Farlowe on the Immediate label with “Think”, one of five Rolling Stones songs Farlowe covered – logical when you remember that Immediate was set up by the aforementioned Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham (who incidentally is well worth a follow)

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The B-side was pretty good too.

REX LAWSON “Bete Boire”

Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson was one of the best-known highlife musicians in Nigeria during the sixties.

This track comes from a session recorded in late 1965.

This recording session was held one afternoon in August of 1965 in a Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation studio in Lagos, and if you listen carefully you can hear cars honking on the streets outside.

Listening to this all these years on, you can’t help but marvel at how good Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson and the Majors sound loose, limber and focused, paying great attention to ensemble dynamics, tight horn choruses and flowing solos.

This is another track from the same session, “Osaba Koro”

“Osaba Koro” by Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson

THEM “I Can Only Give You Everything”

Them in full-on garage mode with I Can Only Give You Everything

This is Them in full-on Animals mode with “Call My Name” from the same album

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Beat ’66 Show #2 – The Blurb
14
Jan

These Sleeve Notes refer to the second Beat Sixty-Six podcast which you can download by clicking

A new show will go up every Thursday throughout 2016, with the sleeve notes following by the Saturday.

You can follow Beat City on Twitter here:

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NANCY SINATRA “These Boots Are Made For Walking”

This track entered the US Top 100 early in January 1966 and would become one of the biggest records of the year, and one of the most lasting, from Nancy Sinatra

Still sounds so fresh, so sassy and so damn sexy after all this time.

Nancy Sinatra’s breakthrough and biggest hit These Boots Are Made For Walking.

If you’re on Twitter she’s well worth following, very human and very smart,follows everyone back (unless you’re a total knob) and is one of the nicest, least pretentious celebs on there.

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THE STRANGELOVES “Night Time”

Second highest chart placing in the US for the Strangeloves

Next The Strangeloves who consisted of producers Bob Feldma,Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer but were promoted as being three Australian sheep-farming brothers named Giles, Miles and Niles Strange.

Their biggest hit was “I Want Candy” which has been much covered over the years but this one, Night Time, is just as good and has also been covered notably by George Thorogood & The Destroyers and, in quite an authentic garagey manner, Bauhaus.

MARTHA REEVES & THE VANDELLAS “My Baby Loves Me”

Everything you could possibly want to know about this record can be found by clicking Motown Junkies on Martha Reeves & The Vandellas ‘My Baby Loves Me’

EDWIN STARR – Stop Her On Sight ( S O S)

A slightly bigger hit in the UK (35) than in the US (48) – the B side “I Have Faith In You” is just as good:

THE SUNRAYS “Andrea”

Originally known as the Renegades and playing rock and roll covers, the Sunrays’ career took of in 1964 when Murry Wilson, the father of Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, started managing them, tweaked the personel a little (removing the sax player) and changed their name to The Sunrays.

As well as Andrea their hits included “I Live for the Sun” (1965) (below) and “Still”.

They supported the Beach Boys on several US tours, but never made it big as their sounds were probably a little bit too similar …

BEACH BOYS “Barbara Ann”

Dean Torrence from the group Jan & Dean sang lead on this song of teenage desire.

Capitol Records released this without telling the band. The Beach Boys were trying to gain credibility as a serious musical act, and didn’t want to put out such a simplistic song.

The release date may have been influenced by the first appearance of heartthrob actress and model Barbara Anne Feldon as Agent 99 on the TV show “Get Smart”.

A bar-bar-bar-bar-Barbara-Ann (probably THE bar-bar-bar-bar-Barbara Ann)

A bar-bar-bar-bar-Barbara-Ann (probably THE bar-bar-bar-bar-Barbara Ann)

Here’s the Regents’ original version, with harmonies the Beach Boys replicated, complete with kazoo, which they very sensibly didn’t.

DELROY WILSON “Dancing Mood”

Delroy Wilson was the first child star of the Jamaican music scene, cutting his first records in 1962 for Sir Coxsone’s Studio One, including “Spit In The Sky”, one of many records made at Studio One attacking the rival Prince Buster (which to be fair was well reciprocated by Buster).

“Dancing Mood” is regarded as one of the very first rocksteady records (as opposed to the faster ska beat that ruled the island’s airwaves until then)

BUCK OWENS “Buckaroo”

Buck Owens, along with Merle Haggard, was the leader of the Bakersfield sound, a twangy, electricified, rock-influenced interpretation of hardcore honky tonk that emerged in the ’60s.

Owens was the first bona fide country star to emerge from Bakersfield, scoring a total of 15 consecutive number one hits in the mid-’60s. In the process, he provided an edgy alternative to the string-laden country-pop that was being produced during the ’60s.

Later in his career, his musical impact was forgotten by some as he became a television personality through the country comedy show Hee Haw.

Nevertheless, several generations of musicians — from Gram Parsons in the late ’60s to Dwight Yoakam in the ’80s — were influenced by his music, which wound up being one of the blueprints for modern country music.

This track, the instrumental “Buckaroo” (named after his backing band The Buckaroos who were named in turn by Merle Haggard), was his fourth country No 1 in the USA as the year turned from 1965 to 1966. The Byrds did a cover of it but I wont lie to you, its not their best work. Seekit out if you absolutely MUST, but I’m not going to enable you by giving you the link. Sorry.

This was the B-side – “If You Want A Love”, a standard country number that benefits from Buck’s straight-ahead, unsentimental delivery. It’s not the most innovative music in the world, but you wouldn’t turn it off either.

And if That ain’t enough country for ya, here’s a live version of Buck’s huge crossover hit from the previous year “Love’s Gonna Live Here Again”.

Now skedaddle before I fill your pants full of lead.

THEM “Hello Josephine”

One of the better songs on “Them Again”, originally written and recorded by Fats Domino

LEE DORSEY “Get Out Of My Life Woman”

Written by Allen Toussaint who passed on recently – what with Lemmy on bass, Bowie on vocals and rhythm guitar, Allen Toussaint on piano and Alan Rickman introducing the band there’s pretty much a whole supergroup in the recent arrivals section of heaven just now.

The song has been sampled in excess of 150 times by such artists as Naz, Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan, The Fugees, Beck and Compton’s Most Wanted (below)


JACKIE WILSON & LAVERN BAKER “Think Twice”

A minor hit, reaching no 93 in the Hot 100, there’s an intriguing “Version X” of this song that was never released for some strange reason. Warning – this is really filthy.

POETS “Baby Don’t You Do It”

On Immediate Records (the Small Faces’ lanel), Glasgow’s Poets released this astonishing freakbeat take on Marvin Gaye’s “Baby Don’t You Do It”.

It just builds and builds on what is a very simple riff and then takes off towards the end.

The B-Side “I’ll Come Home” is by contrast a jangly Beatles-style tune proving the Poets had more than one trick in their box.

SAM AND DAVE “You Don’t Know Like I Know”

This tune only just scraped into the Hot 100 but it was the start of a run of eight hits for Sam and Dave, a vocal match made in heaven with the gravelly baritone of Dave Prater the perfect counterpoint to tenor Sam Moore’s sweet tenor voice in the style of that other great sixties soul Sam (Cooke).

They were one of the most exciting live acts of the era, with a live act filled with animation, harmony and goodwill.

This was their first single for Stax from 1965, which inexplicably failed to trouble the charts, but its a great tune.

SMALL FACES “Sha-La-La-La-Lee”

After their second single “I’ve Got Mine” failed to build on the chart success of their debut “Whatcha Gonna Do About It?”, the Small Faces’ manager Don Arden brought in professional songwriters Mort Shuman and Kenny Lynch to write “Sha-La-La-La-Lee” for the band.

The Small Faces hated this song, and it did mark them down as a pop band rather than the R&B / soul band they in fact were (although there IS an absolutely cracking piano intro by Ian McLagan, almost hidden in the production).

It did get to number 3 in the British charts though, and those fans who flipped the disc were treated to a scorching instrumental (and the theme tune for Retro Beat ’66) “Grow Your Own”:

THE EYES “The Immediate Pleasure”

Evolved out of an instrumental band called The Renegades, and you can kind of hear that on this record, which would in fact stand on its own as an instrumental, with that descending guitar lead line.

The vocals almost act as an extra layer on top giving the whole thing a lot of depth

The band didn’t last beyond 1966 – recording an ill-advised tribute album to the Rolling Stones under the name The Pupils (geddit?) for some quick cash didn’t really help their credibility.

You can tell their hearts weren’t really in it, check this version of “19th Nervous Breakdown”.

BOBBY BLAND “I’m Too Far Gone To Turn Around”

It’s easy to come to the conclusion that by 1966 Bobby Bland’s classic R and B “big band” style sound was old hat but a look at the chart performance of his hits doesn’t really bear that out – sure, his days of hitting #1 in the US R&B chart were gone but his singles still regularly made the R&B Top 20 and the overall Hot 100, so he clearly had a strong and loyal fanbase.

The B-side “If You Could Read My Mind” is another clue as to why – a fairly ordinary MOR song and arrangement raised by Bobby’s sweet, sweet voice to another plane.

SPENCER DAVIS GROUP “Look Away”

A brave choice for the opening track from the Spencer Davis Group’s “The Second Album” – rather than going with the hit single from the previous year “Keep On Running” they chose the tragic heartbreak tune “Look Away”, which it has to be said is a lot more typical of the album.

Another atypical track from the album is the country-style “This Hammer”

MARVIN GAYE “When I Had Your Love”

The B-side of “One More Heartache” which you can hear in either next week’s Retro Beat City or the week after, but I think this is actually a better track.

Incidentally, Marvin’s most recent album at that time (released in November 1965) was a tribute album to his hero Nat ‘King’ Cole who died the previous February. From it this is “Its Only A Paper Moon”

THE EASYBEATS “Sad And Lonely And Blue”

Among the recent losses in the world of music around the end of2015 / beginning of 2016 was Stevie Wright, singer with Australia’s finest group of the 60s, the Easybeats.

Click here for Stevie Wright’s obituary and ten of his greatest songs

There is a story about Good Times, that the first time he heard it, Paul McCartney pulled over and rang the radio station, asking them to play it again. Six months later, the Beatles released Get Back, which revolves around the same GDA progression.

Beat ’66 Show #1 – The Blurb
8
Jan

A new show will go up every Thursday throughout 2016, with the sleeve notes following by the Saturday.

13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS “You’re Gonna Miss Me”

“The saga of the 13th Floor Elevators was an Old Testament tale and Roky Erickson was its Job,” – Julian Cope.

Roky Erickson was a misfit kid who loved rock and roll. In 1965, he dropped out of high school a month before graduating to become a musician. Later that year he and his first band, the Spades, made their first single, the crude and hypnotic “We Sell Soul.” Written by Erickson using the pseudonym Emil Schwartze, it has the bare-boned elements of what would become the sound of his next step.

Shortly after the Spades dissolved, Erickson formed the 13th Floor Elevators with other like-minded souls. The band signed to the Texas-based International Artists label and released their classic debut single, “You’re Gonna Miss Me,” in early 1966.

Their mind-blowing debut album, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, would follow that summer.

“You’re Gonna Miss Me,” was a minor hit, making it all the way up to No. 55 in the summer of that year, staying on the charts for nearly two months.

TEMPTATIONS “Get Ready”

The original Temptations version of “Get Ready”, produced by Smokey Robinson, was designed as an answer to the latest dance craze, “The Duck”. The Temptations’ falsetto Eddie Kendricks sings lead on the song, which Robinson produced as an up-tempo dance number with a prominent rhythm provided by Motown drummer Benny Benjamin. In the song, Kendricks informs his lover to “get ready” because “I’m bringin’ you a love that’s true”. Melvin Franklin sings lead on the pre-chorus: “fe, fi, fo, fum/look out/’cause here I come” along with several other similar lines. The song made it to number one on the U.S. R&B singles chart, while peaking at number twenty-nine on the pop charts.[1]

The group’s previous singles since “My Girl” had all landed in the U.S. Pop charts (and R&B charts) Top 20. However “Get Ready” only just scraped into the Top 30.

The song did eventually become a Top 10 pop hit, but not by the Temptations, but by the Motown rock band Rare Earth.

In 1970, Motown’s rock band Rare Earth released a massively successful cover version of the song as a single.

21-minute version of the track appears on Rare Earth’s first album but it’s not for the faint-hearted.

THE UGLY’S “The Quiet Explosion”

Far superior B-side of “A Good Idea” :

The choice of name for Birmingham’s “The Ugly’s” was deliberate and not a reference to the physical appearance of band members as their van became covered in messages lovingly scrawled in lipstick from their many female fans. When interviewed for the Midland Beat newspaper, the group said; “It brings us embarrassing moments but we are achieving our object by using the name. You see, interest is aroused as soon as we are advertised to appear anywhere. People come along to see if we really are ugly!”

The Ugly’s third single for PYE featured Steve Gibbons playing a ‘kazoo’ on the A-side titled ‘A Good Idea’ which in retrospect may not have been a good idea as the single’s B-side is really the stand-out track. ‘The Quiet Explosion’ is a lost psychedelic classic complete with freaky organ and echoey bass.

This was certainly ahead of its time when considering The Beatles had only just started experimenting with strange sounds on their ‘Revolver’ album.

Despite a promotional TV appearance on ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’, this Uglys single sank without trace and three decades passed before its flip side gained rightful recognition on a CD release.

DAVID BOWIE & THE LOWER THIRD “Can’t Help Thinking About Me”

If “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” was David Bowie trying to sound more like the Kinks than the Kinks did, and succeeding , then the B-side “And I Say To Myself” found the young pop chameleon trying on the teenage hearthrob crooner’s sweater for size – “Tonight, Matthew, I’m going to be Peter Noone”

THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR “I Fought The Law”

It is a misconception not universally acknowledged that when an artist is known for one hit and no others, that one hit was the absolute peak of their songwriting and musical creativity. They concentrated everything into those two and a half to three minutes and made no other records worth hearing.

Of course in some cases this is actually true – but not in the case of the Bobby Fuller Four.

Bobby Fuller is remembered as something of a Fifties throwback who recreated old-fashioned Buddy Holly-sounding records with precision and perfection, culminating in his most famous song “I Fought The Law”

He did so much more than the admittedly classic “I Fought The Law” though, including “My True Love”, “Only When I Dream”, “Never To Be Forgotten” and “Fool Of Love” (below).

THE GUYS FROM UNCLE “The Spy”

A cracking Northern Soul track about which very little is known. Check out the intro, a full six years before Isaac Hayes’ the Theme From Shaft

There was a vocal version credited to “The Girls From Uncle” called Agent Of Love, equally great, equally obscure.

THEM “Could You Would You” (from the album “Them Again”)

The band’s second and, for all intents and purposes, last full album was recorded while Them were in the process of breaking up.

Apart from Van Morrison’s vocals and Alan Henderson on Bass, it is not clear who actually played on the album although Jimmy Page probably played guitar on a few tracks at least.

The songs here are a little less focused than the first LP, they don’t really fit together as an album, encompassing too many different styles, but there’s still some excellent songs here

The material was cut under siege conditions, with a constantly shifting lineup and a grueling tour schedule; essentially, there was no “group” to provide focus to the sound, only Morrison’s voice, so the material bounces from a surprisingly restrained “I Put a Spell on You”

to the garage-punk of “I Can Only Give You Everything.”, both of which you’ll hear in forthcoming shows but this week we’ve picked the opening track Could You Would You.

You’ll hear a track every week on Retro Beat Sixty-Six throughout January from Them Again, one of our two albums of the month for January 1966.

THE MANHATTANS “Follow Your Heart”

Best known for their soft 70s soul hit Kiss And Say Goodbye …

… the five members of The Manhattans hailed from New Jersey which seems to be the origin of the name – “You could see the Manhattan skyline right across the water from Jersey City. It was an easy name to remember, and we just thought it sounded classy”. Either that or they were named after the Manhattan cocktail – the surviving band members are a little hazy in recollecting which version of the story is correct.

TAGES “Bloodhound”

Tages were a Swedish band formed in the early sixties near Gothenburg.

The band released a number of singles and LPs in their native Sweden to considerable success, making the Swedish Top Ten more than a dozen times.

Later in the year Tages released “Extra Extra”, regarded as one of the world’s first psychedelic albums.

Though remembered as one of the finest non-English speaking bands of the 1960s, they failed to ever really break into the US or UK markets.

Accepting that they would never break the Anglophone markets their later records mix in traditional Swedish folk music influences culminating in their fifth and last album, “Studio” (recorded, oddly at Abbey Road in London)

Here’s another track from 1966 with some dodgy miming (hey, you think it’s hard to mime, try it in a language other than your native tongue)

BOB DYLAN “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window”

Recorded during the sessions for Dylan’s 1965 album “Highway 61 Revisited”, “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window” was released as a non-album single in late 1965 and performed creditably onm both sides of the pond. Dylan is backed for this song by he Hawks – Robbie Robertson on guiter, Rick Danko on bass, Richard Manuel on piano, Garth Hudson on organ and Levon Helm on drums

PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS “Just Like Me”

One of the most popular and entertaining rock groups of the 1960s, Paul Revere & the Raiders enjoyed seven years of serious chart action, and during their three biggest years (1966-1969), sold records in numbers behind only the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

They were very much aware of and played up the theatrical side of rock and roll and were unfairly dismissed by critics of the time as being “a bit too showbiz” but their string of hits – “Steppin’ Out,” “Just Like Me,” “Hungry,” “Him or Me — What’s It Gonna Be,” and “Kicks” in particular — are actually decent unpretentious pieces of ’60s punky rock & roll.

“Just Like Me” was their biggest hit to date and led to the rush-release of the album “Just Like Us”, which you’ll hear tracks from later in January on Retro Beat Sixty-Six.

SLIM HARPO “Baby Scratch My Back”

“Baby Scratch My Back” was Slim Harpo’s only #1 on the soul singles chart where it stayed for two weeks. “Baby Scratch My Back” also crossed over to the Top
40 and was Harpo’s most commercially successful single.

Never a full-time musician, Harpo had his own trucking business during the 1960s.

He needed to tour constantly and play as much as possible; times were frequently lean financially and you have to put food on the table, when it comes right down to it.

But, by 1964, several of his tracks had been released on albums and singles in the UK,[8] and British rock bands like the Rolling Stones, the Pretty Things, the Yardbirds, the Kinks, Pink Floyd and Them began to feature versions of his songs in their early repertoires. The Moody Blues reportedly took their name from an instrumental track of Slim’s called “Moody Blues”

Slim Harpo was no purist – his material proved to be quite adaptable for white artists on both sides of the Atlantic (see the Rolling Stones and others’ versions of “I’m A King Bee”.

A crowd-pleasing club entertainer, he certainly wasn’t above working rock & roll rhythms and country and western vocals into his music.

He had his biggest commercial success in 1966, when the predominantly instrumental “Baby Scratch My Back” reached no.1 on the R&B chart and no.16 on the US pop chart. Harpo described it as “an attempt at rock & roll for me.”

Here’s the B-side “I’m Gonna Miss You Like The Devil”

THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP “Let Me Down Easy” (from “The Second Album”)

One of the most exciting and influential groups to come out of Birmingham in the early 1960s, the Spencer Davis Group is recognized for their classic and ground-breaking recordings as well as for launching Steve Winwood’s music career.

The Spencer Davis Group comprised Spencer Davis on organ, Steve Winwood on guitar and vocals, his brother Muff Winwood on bass and Pete York on drums.

It was Muff Winwood who came up with the name ‘Spencer Davis Group’ on the pretext that the articulate Davis could do the interviews while the others stayed in bed – maybe not the best idea since the band became associated with Spencer’s name whereas their major unique selling point, sonologically speaking, was Stevie Winwood’s incredible strong, rangy voice.

Up to mid-1965 this time, the songs performed and recorded by the Spencer Davis Group were covers of existing blues and R&B standards but Chris Blackwell brought in Jamaican singer/songwriter Jackie Edwards to compose the next three singles for the group. The first was ‘Keep On Running’ which was transformed by the group into a rocking R&B number with the addition of a driving bass riff and a unique (for that time) electric fuzz guitar effect. The result it had on the record charts was spectacular with the song knocking The Beatles from the top spot and going to Number

One before the end of 1965. The Spencer Davis Group’s first LP was rushed to the shops and the band members now had to endure the side-effect of being pursued by screaming girls!

SHAWN ELLIOTT “Shame & Scandal In The Family”

Originally written in 1962 by Trinidadian calypsonian Lord Melody, “Shame And Scandal In The Family” was a hit in Europe for Puerto Rican singer Shawn Elliott Santiago. Oddly, the British satirist Lance Percival had the hit in the USA. Lord Melody never had a hit with it outside the Caribbean.

CHAD & JEREMY “Teenage Failure”

Banned from appearing on Thank Your Lucky Stars and Top Of The Pops because of the line “I’m Gonna Smash Your Face In”.

By mid-1966 Chad and Jeremy had cleaned up their act to the point where they could appear as themselves in an episode of the TV show “Batman”. The story involves Catwoman stealing their voices 8=)

Note Batman’s reference to “5000 screaming teenagers” – can’t be more than 50, surely Batman? Holy exaggeration!

THE McCOYS “Fever”

The McCoys, basically revamping their big hit “Hang On Sloopy” using the words and (vaguely) the tune of Peggy Lee’s smoking classic torch song “Fever”. Here’s the original:

BILLY STEWART “Mountain Of Love”

Co-written by Shena deMell and the legendary Sugar Pie deSanto that was Mountain Of Love by Billy Stewart, the B-side to the more commercial-sounding “Because I Love You”

THE MAMAS AND THE PAPAS “California Dreamin'”

Written by John Phillips on a frigid winter night in Manhattan when his young wife, Michelle, was homesick for Southern California, “California Dreamin’ ” is one of the all-time sunniest songs of longing.

It was first done by Phillips’ folk group the New Journeymen and later given to Barry McGuire as a thank-you after McGuire, riding high with “Eve of Destruction,” introduced the group to producer Lou Adler, who convinced the Mamas and the Papas to cut it themselves.

Due to its popularity, the song has appeared on numerous film soundtracks and as plot elements in other movies and television shows.

Notably, the song is used repeatedly in the 1994 Wong Kar-wai film Chungking Express, in which a character played by singer Faye Wong obsessively listens to it.

FESTIVE FIFTY OF 1965 – Further Listening – Nos 10-1
5
Jan

Final blog instalment of the Festive Fifty of 1965.

You can download the two-part podcast absolutely FREE here:

10. THE NOVAS “The Crusher”

Minnesota-based (where else?!) garage band The Novas, wrote this song dedicated to wrestler Crusher Lisowski.

The song has been covered by the Cramps and the Ramones.

The Novas were more usually known as an instrumental band and the B-side of the record “Take Seven” is a decent beefed-up slab of psyche-surf.

9. THE EMERALDS “King Lonely The Blue”

Formed in Farnborough in Hampshire in 1963, the Emeralds got to make three singles, none of which got anywhere chart-wise.

After such a great track as “King Lonely The Blue” had flopped in late 1965 the band changed their name to “Wishful Thinking” and gained a fair amount of success in Denmark, but not in their home country. Check the Beatley end to this.

8. THE BEATLES “Think For Yourself”

george 1965 close

George Harrison’s “Think For Yourself”, lyrically cynical and wielding an odd sequence of chords, which, written down, look like somebody’s programmed a computer to write a song and “be a bit experimental”, somehow works wonderfully well. Paul McCartney’s double-tracked bass guitar makes it sound like something nasty lurking in the vaults, perfectly matching George’s bitter lyric.

I suppose you could definitely say it doesn’t rip anybody off though.

7. MARTHA REEVES & THE VANDELLAS “Nowhere To Run”

When the matter of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas’ finest single comes up, the debate is usually between “Dancing In The Street” and “Heatwave” but the correct answer is of course “Nowhere To Run”.

Incidentally I’d put “Jimmy Mack” at number two, an underrated track – not least by Motown who shelved it for two and a half years after it was recorded in 1964, finally becoming a hit in 1967.

6. THE FOUR TOPS “The Same Old Song”

The highest-placed Motown tune in the Festive Fifty of 1965. The Four Tops released two stone cold classics that year and to be honest if it wasn’t for the “one song per artist” rule “I Can’t Help Myself” would also have got in.

5. SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET “She’s About A Mover”

First release and the only hit for Texas band Sir Douglas Quintet whose combination of a British name and – initially – look attempted to cash in on the just-about-current British Beat Boom that still had currency for another year or so. Sonologically though, the band their Tex-Mexc origins with a garage-based 12-bar blues sound.

This was their first single and their only hit – perhaps they were seen, unfairly from the evidence of their 1969 song “Mendacino” and others, as a novelty band. Founder and mainman Doug Sahm knows how to squeeze every last drop out of two chords – TWO! – and a Farfisa organ hook.

4. THEM “Mystic Eyes”

And while we’re on the subject of two-chord songs, this has rarely been bettered.

The track drops straight in with a full head of steam.

In a song lasting two minutes and 47 seconds, the vocals don’t come in until 1:14. The first minute is played on one chord – one note in the case of the organist – under a crazed, rocking harmonica solo and only then do we drop down to the second chord. We then get a minute’s worth of vocal imagery – a signpost towards Van Morrison’s more stream-of-consciousness lyrics later in the decade – and a long fade on the same chord, leaving you feeling like someone’s kicked you up the arse then run away.

Kicking Bishop Brennan Up The Arse

3. GEORGIE FAME & THE BLUE FLAMES “Yeh Yeh”

Possibly the last ever jazz record to get to Number 1 in the UK, unless you count “Deeply Dippy” by Right Said Fred, which I am inclined not to.

Georgie Fame was so cool he could sing a ska/bluebeat version of a nursery rhyme in a cod-West Indian accent and it would STILL sound great.

Don’t believe me? Check this out.

2. BOB DYLAN “Like A Rolling Stone”

There’s been so much written about this song that I don’t really know where to begin.

Greatest Dylan song? Best Number One song ever? Perfectly defines the moment when pop became rock? Marks Dylan’s transition lyrically from clear protest anthems to more opaque, more personal yet more widely applicable songs? All of the above?

I still can’t think of any other songs regarded as important enough to have a whole book written about them – and Griel Marcus’s impassioned 200-page tome is pretty readable.

1. THE SONICS “Psycho”

From the New Yorker on the occasion of The Sonics’ 2015 comeback album “This Is The Sonics”:

Garage rock doesn’t exactly demand innovation. Songs should be crunchy and upbeat, and if they focus on girls, or cars, or girls in cars, they’ll pretty much do the trick.

Early on, the Sonics intuitively understood this—but they also played harder, faster, and with more grim aggression than anyone in Tacoma, Washington, had ever thought to play.

Morbid hits—now cult favorites—like “Psycho” and “The Witch” sounded angrier and more abrasive than any form of rock and roll that had come before.

Check out “Strychnine,”

At the time, Tacoma was the working-class Liverpool to Seattle’s swingin’ London. “My dad ran a crane on the waterfront,” the saxophonist Rob Lind said recently. “There were great musicians in Seattle, but the music was jazzy and swingy. We were blue-collar guys—we wanted to rock.”

Their formula—straight, pounding beats, bellowing or screeched vocals, pre-stomp-box distortion achieved by maxing out their amps’ volume—presaged the volatile energy of punk rock. It also built them a fan base in the Northwest “teen club” scene, where bored youth drank in the parking lots of halls with names like the Red Carpet and the Lake Hills roller rink.

But a lack of national distribution prevented them from reaching a wider audience. The Sonics never toured extensively, and hit their peak opening for groups like the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and the Kinks in Seattle.

But they made a lasting impression. “Strychnine” was covered magnificently by both The Fall and The Cramps. In 1994, Kurt Cobain said that Bob Bennett’s machine-gun drumming was “the most amazing drum sound I’ve ever heard.” Their songs have also been recorded by Bruce Springsteen, the Flaming Lips, and the Ramones; and the White Stripes have cited them as an influence.

During the garage-rock revival of the early noughties, the Sonics were rediscovered by a new group of listeners, and they reunited in 2007.

This week, the band releases “This Is the Sonics,” its first album of new material in nearly half a century, one of the longest intervals between recordings in rock history. The new work has the same primal intensity of its previous records, thanks in no small part to the producer Jim Diamond, who has worked with the White Stripes, the Mooney Suzuki, and a slew of other contemporary acts who owe a debt to the Sonics. Diamond recorded the band in mono, to capture the spirit of the sixties output.

Lind quit his day job, and he and the Sonics have embarked on a tour of the U.S., with a stop at Irving Plaza on April 8. With the band members in their seventies, will the live show still pack a punch? Lind chuckled. “It’s the most fun I can have without getting in trouble with the cops.”

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading these notes.

During 2016 we’ll be releasing a Retro Beat Sixty-Six podcast every week on podomatic (see the links at the top of this blog piece) together with notes similar to this, covering the sounds of fifty years ago this week – and not the standard hits you can hear elsewhere, either.

Stay tuned, hep cats!

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